19/04/2013

3 Facebook Career killing Mistakes to avoid.

“Mark!! Always remember that the internet is written in
indelible ink.” So goes a line in a movie, ‘The Social network’, which depicts
the early days of Facebook. In the movie, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s
girlfriend- Erica Albright- shouts at him for posting her picture online. While
the Facebook mistakes may probably not make your girlfriend to leave you, as Mark’s
did, it could just as well get you fired.

Many employers are using Facebook to screen potential
employees and do background checks, more than they rely on referees and former
work colleagues. Some have even created a Facebook page to assist them interact
better with future prospective job seekers. Here are three Facebook mistakes
that you can easily avoid in order to push your career forward.

1. Complaining about Your
Current Job

It could be a full note about how much you hate your office,
or how incompetent your boss is, or it could be as innocent as a status update
about how your coworker always shows up late. While everyone complains about
work sometimes, doing so in a public forum where it can be found by others is
not the best career

move. Although it may seem innocent, it's not the kind of
impression that sits well with a potential boss - or a current one for that
matter.

2. Keeping a False
Profile Information

We live in an age of instant gratification, and we all want
to appear like we have it all. If we see our friend posting that they have just
shopped at a mall in Westlands, we also want to follow up with an equally
captivating update. However, presenting yourself as someone you are not will
likely backfire, and might be captured during the interview stage if you are
lucky enough to get past the screening of the CVs.

3. Uploading provocative
photos.

course, we all have that photo we would want to share with
our friends. It’s one reason why websites like instagram exist. However, if you
also hope Facebook to help you in your job search, you should limit the people
who get to see your photos, by making use of the privacy settings.
Alternatively, you could also create two Facebook accounts, one for
professional use, and another one purely for your personal use to interact with
friends and loved ones.

The professional one could be your version of online CVs,
and you could then sign into and like pages of your mentors, public figures you
admire, job sites, and companies- hopefully the ones you hope to be your future
employers- you would want to get constant updates from. With just a little
creativity, you could use Facebook for both social interactions and enhancing
your career.